Uncategorized | RetirementYoung

If necessity is the mother of invention, then a road trip is its crazy uncle–the one none of the relatives would ever allow to babysit. I know because I’ve had to invent some stuff myself.

The first was just an organizing box, so I guess I started pretty small. But it holds all the books and pamphlets I started with and have added to. It’s getting a bit full, but not too big to sit where it belongs, in the passenger side foot space. I can reach it easily and it doesn’t tip over, plus I learned that a passenger can still fit–at least if he has smallish feet. I gave a guy a lift to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, and in return I’ve been invited to China. Nice trade for a four minute ride.

Another invention that worked (I promise not to mention the ones that don’t really work) was a new type of mummy sleeping bag for when you can’t get your sleeping bag to zip on a night that keeps getting colder, colder, and colder. Like in the elegant Silver City, New Mexico KOA where I woke up early, and looked at the car thermometer. It read 37 degrees F. So, pretty cold. In the night I’d stuffed the entire foot area of the sleeping bag well up into the stuff sack, thusly converting a normal bag shape into a temp-efficient mummy style. No toes were lost to frostbite, though I did drive to a coffee shop immediately after arising.

I also invented an easy way to not get lost at night when you know you’re too exhausted to go anywhere, but you still want to leave the campground that has dark winding roads AND still find your own tent after dark. Did I mention it was getting dark?

So, basically you just drive out to the highway and drive right back in looking for little clues that might still be visible. This sort of worked, and I did find my way back after a mild celebration of May 5 in the town of Slow Low, AZ. I know it sounds like a small out-of-the-way sort of place, but I found that they carry The New York Times at the gas station. Didn’t need one, but it’s nice to know.

Patents pending.